The Joy of Gourmet: Japanese Cuisine

Experincing a different type of food is always exciting. It occupies great part of fun of your travel, and often provides a unique opportunity toward understanding a different culture, perhaps equally well as appreciating arts.
Japanese food has become very popular in the past 20-30 years. Nonetheless, its real significance is, in my (YY) view, far from true understanding.
True, there are now very many Japanese restaurents in many countries. But they are in one way or another modified, often due to the need of adjusting to local tastey Kyoto had been the captol of Japan for 1000 years, and cooking artitry reached its height in this city. Experiencing the authentic Japanese cuisine in Kyoto can thus be a unique experience.
Here are some tips for traditional Japanese course (called "Kaiseki") in a high-class restaurent.

• The course usually starts with an hour hors-d'oeuvre, called "Hassun" or "Tsukidashi".

• The menu often goes to a second starter; this has great varieties, and reflects hous specials. Here is an example.

• The course would then proceed to "sashimi" (sliced raw fish), "wanmono" (soup), "yakimono" (broiled dish, often fish), "hashiyasume" (maybe regarded as a second hour d'oeuvre, to refresh the taste and prepares for the second half of the menu), "takimono" (boiled dish), "agemono" (fried dish; omitted here), "sunomono" (sour taste dish), and rice with pickles, sometimes desert

• Some photos are shown below. The restaurent is "Ohgami" at Shijo, Kyoto.

You see that the plates, containers have a great variety. The harmony of the overall comibination of plates, containers is an important part of the dinner.

How about the price? Well, it varies. In this case, you can choose the course of 8,000 or 12,000 JPY. ifExpensive? Indeed. But if you choose a right restaurent, it can be a lifetime experience. There are some other restaurents more reasonably priced, ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 JPY. You can find quite a few of them in the area of Ponto-cho. Please find its whereabouts in your guidebook. Unfortunately most of their homepages are in Japanes only. I'll try to find a reasonable link.
You should not be scared off by the sample prices shown above. They are rather high-class restaurents, and you can well get by with lots of more reasonably priced restaurents. One possible choice is so-called "Izakaya" where you can oder lots of different foods with reasonable price. A standard charge for one person would be about 2,000 to 3,000 JPY.
More about restaurents in Kyoto later, when I find useful links.

The interior of this restaurent "Ohgami". It is quite small, having only 9 seats in the counter; the ice cube on the second picture intends to exhibit cooness in summer; the room is of course air-conditioned..